Aerodynamics of a Uranus Aerocapture System Using a Mars-Heritage Entry Vehicle

Aerodynamic characteristics of an aerocapture system intended to deliver a flagship-class orbiter and probe planetary science mission to Uranus are presented. The aeroshell of the Mars Science Laboratory and Mars 2020 entry vehicles is proposed as a baseline for this system to reduce the amount of necessary technology development. Direct Simulation Monte Carlo and Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics solutions are used to characterize the aerodynamic performance of the Mars-heritage vehicle for aerocapture flight at Uranus. These results are incorporated into an aerodatabase for use in six degree-of-freedom trajectory studies and mission design. Updates are made to the Mars-heritage aerodynamic uncertainty model based on observations in the Uranus-specific computational data to ensure the model is conservatively bounding for the proposed flight space. Necessary modifications to the aeroshell for system packaging are found to have minimal effect on aerodynamic performance. The resulting aerodatabase and uncertainty model are used to show the existing Mars-heritage entry vehicles have sufficient aerodynamic performance to achieve required control margin for Uranus aerocapture.